Smarter choices: Eat this, not that

JOHN GRIFFIN/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

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Wonton soup instead of dumplings: At a Chinese restaurant, start with a cup of wonton soup with dumplings in the soup instead of ordering an appetizer of dumplings. A cup of soup contains 71 calories, while an order of pan-fried pork dumplings packs 360 calories. Even vegetable dumplings have 280 calories. Steaming the dumplings instead of frying them brings down the respective numbers only by about 20 calories each. But watch the salt either way. A cup of the soup has between 700 and 900 milligrams sodium, while the dumplings have between 460 and 600 milligrams sodium per serving.

Wonton soup instead of dumplings: At a Chinese restaurant, start with a cup of wonton soup with dumplings in the soup instead of ordering an appetizer of dumplings. A cup of soup contains 71 calories, while an order of pan-fried pork dumplings packs 360 calories. Even vegetable dumplings have 280 calories. Steaming the dumplings instead of frying them brings down the respective numbers only by about 20 calories each. But watch the salt either way. A cup of the soup has between 700 and 900 milligrams sodium, while the dumplings have between 460 and 600 milligrams sodium per serving.